On the heath

This morning my sister's daughter and her two kids came round, as did Daughter One who is also down staying down here for a few days with her cousin not far away. We had a lovely family morning and lunch.

After lunch we visited Molesey Heath, a local nature reserve which was a complete surprise to me. Situated between two major reservoirs in Molesey, this 44 acre reserve was intially a gravel pit which was later used as a landfill site for many years. It was finally covered over with soil and allowed to regrow naturally. There are open areas, woodlands, acres of scrubland - once derided, but now recognised as a major wildlife habitat - and a couple of ponds full of bird life. An interesting walk, though I had to laugh at this sign! Although some of the reserve is owned by the council, the rest still belongs to the company who bought the land to extract gravel. 

We returned to my sister's for a cuppa and to finalise plans for tomorrow - we're visiting Knepp, the pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, the subject of Isabella Tree's book 'Wilding'. Really looking forward to this!